Affliction Warlock Rotation and Priorities

This section of the Affliction Warlock guide provides an overview of all spec abilities, when and how to use them. This guide was originally written by Terryn, and is now being maintained and updated by Xyronic. You can check out my twitch page where I frequently stream anything to do with WoW. If you have any questions, it's best to PM me on discord @Xyronic#3576.

Artifact Ability

영혼 수확 - Consumes all souls unleashed by Ulthalesh (souls appear when you kill enemies, the weapon also lets loose a few every couple seconds) and grants you Deadwind Harvester, increasing all damage done by and doubling all artifact traits' effects.

Damage Dealing Abilities

고통 - Leaves a DOT on the target that starts with low damage, but increases over time. 고통 damage can sometimes generate a 영혼의 조각.

영혼 흡수 - Channeled ability that deals damage over time, and heals you for an amount of the damage done to the target. Grants a 영혼의 조각 if the target dies while channeling this spell.

부패의 씨앗 - Throws a demonic seed at the target, that explodes after the target takes some damage from the Warlock. The explosion affects all targets around the seeded target, and afflicts them with 부패.

불안정한 고통 - Powerful DOT that consumes a 영혼의 조각 to deal heavy damage over a short duration. You can apply up to 5 불안정한 고통s at the same time per target. Grants a 영혼의 조각 if the target dies while having at least 1 불안정한 고통 on them.

Offensive Cooldowns

파멸수호병 소환 - Summons a Doomguard to your command for a short time. The Doomguard will cast 파멸의 화살s that deal heavy single-target damage.

지옥불정령 소환 - Summons a Infernal to your command for a short time. The Infernal will land on your target, stunning everything around it, then deal heavy AoE damage.

Defensive Abilities

영원한 결의 - Hardens your skin, reducing all damage you take by 40% for 8 seconds, while also rendering you immune to interrupts and silence effects.

Pets

Warlocks have access to multiple demons that can do it's bidding. Each pet has a niche and a special ability that can be used via 악마 조종.

임프 소환 - Summons an Imp under your command, that casts firebolts from a distance.

Utility Abilities

추방 - 추방es a Demon, Aberration or Elemental mob, preventing any action from them for 30 seconds. A 추방ed target can't do anything, but is also immune to damage. You can break a 추방 by recasting the ability on the target.

악마의 관문 - Creates a gateway between two locations, which party and raid members can use to transport to one gateway to the other.

생명석 창조 - Creates a 생명석, that can be used to heal a moderate amount of health. 생명석s can be traded, and have 3 charges.

영혼의 샘 창조 - Creates a soul well that party and raid members can use to acquire 생명석s.

악마 지배 - Enslaves a Demon mob, forcing it to do your bidding for 5 minutes. This enslaved demon replaces your current pet.

킬로그의 눈 - Summons an 킬로그의 눈 and binds your vision to it. The eye can be used to scout around.

공포 - Disorients a target for 20 seconds. Unlike 추방, this target is not immune to damage and damage done to it can break the 공포.

Passive Abilities

영혼 갈취 - All damage you and your pets deal grants you and your pets a shadowy shield.

Basic Ability Breakdown

Agony

고통 is basically the most important spell in our rotation since it is the only 영혼의 조각 generator. This Damage Over Time (DOT) ability has a stacking system, that ramps up with every tick or cast of agony on a target, up to a stack of 10. It starts off weak, but becomes one of our strongest abilities after the 10 stacks.

Corruption

부패 Is a basic ability that deals damage over time. It lacks the ramp-up effect that 고통 has, but does not generate shards.

Unstable Affliction

불안정한 고통 is our primary shard spender for 1-2 targets. This ability lasts exactly 4 ticks, and has its period and duration reduced by haste. It is also our hardest hitting ability. This dot stacks multiple times on a target as different dots, up to 5 times. When a target dies with any number of these dots on a target, you will gain one 영혼의 조각 back.

Seed of Corruption

부패의 씨앗 is our primary AOE ability and now costs a shard. This ability is amplified by talents to become our de-facto shard spender at 3+ clumped targets.

Drain Soul

영혼 흡수 is our filler ability. This deals moderate damage, and will generate a shard when the target dies if its under the effect of 영혼 흡수.

Note: Often overlooked, 영혼 흡수 does a large amount of healing, critting for upwards of two million at higher gear levels. Affliction warlocks are able to self-sustain healing better than any other class with just their filler spell.

영혼의 조각 are generated by 고통. These are generated on a ramping % chance that is related to the number of targets with 고통 on them. The full formula is below:

Rotation/Priority List

Single Target Rotation/Priority

The Affliction Warlock has two different phases for its single target rotation: Maintenance and Drain cycles. These also rely on being specced into 재앙의 손아귀.

MaintenanceCast 생명력 전환 If you are below 30% mana at the start (before any dot refreshes)Maintain 고통 on all available targets.Maintain 부패 on boss and longer lived targets. Use 부패의 씨앗 if it will save GCDs.Maintain 생명력 착취 if specced into it onto longer lived targets.

Malefic Grasp Drain CycleCast 불안정한 고통 twice, or until you are down to 3 shards on the boss. If you know you will get a larger shard influx due to more 고통 agony out on targets, or a large amount of movement comes after your Drain Cycle, cast 3 or 4 times. Any more than 4 is a waste.Immediately begin casting 영혼 흡수 until all 불안정한 고통 have fallen off, or until just before your 고통 has fallen off.

Haunt PriorityNOTE: this rotation is mainly for tunneling a single target. It is assumed that you have done some maintenance on dots on various targets before entering this.

Cast 유령 출몰 on the priority target. This is ideally a target that will be dying during the duration of the 유령 출몰 debuff.

Multi-Target Rotations

Apply 불안정한 고통 if you have 5 shards, try to drop down below 2 shards before continuing. If you specced into 전염 spread these around, otherwise it doesn’t matter who gets these. Never have more than 5 불안정한 고통 on a target at one time.

Multi Target Dump CyclesWith your Multi Target 고통의 몸부림 builds, instead of going through “Drain Cycles” like you do with 재앙의 손아귀, you will go through Dump Cycles. These are done when you are close to hitting 4-5 영혼의 조각 to make sure to not waste 영혼의 조각.

If you can, pool your 고통받는 영혼 to at least 4 before starting, but more allows you to just keep going.

Apply 불안정한 고통 if you have 5 shards, try to drop down below 2 shards before continuing. If you specced into 전염 spread these around, otherwise it doesn’t matter who gets these. Never have more than 5 불안정한 고통 on a target at one time.

Apply up to 5 불안정한 고통 to one target that will live for the duration of them.

Pandemic

Maximizing Pandemic and good 영혼 수확 timing are what make a good Affliction warlock. Pandemic is a passive that all casters now have that allows for 33% of the duration of DoT effects to be added onto new DoTs when they are refreshed. Be aware that refreshing 고통 <5.4 seconds remaining is optimal, refreshing 부패 <4.2 seconds remaining is optimal and refreshing 생명력 착취 <4.5 seconds remaining is optimal.

Reap Souls

영혼 수확 should always be used in conjunction with a drain cycle in single target, or in conjunction with a large amount of 고통 being stacked to 20 for multi target. For the earlier you want to use it with 2-3 souls, and the later you want to time it to have 4+ souls while all dots are ticking and you can get some 불안정한 고통 out as well. If used with a 고통의 몸부림 spec, your goal is to time it with all your dots up, and time 4 souls with a full five 영혼의 조각 dump of 불안정한 고통

Unstable Affliction

Without 재앙의 손아귀 your goal is to collect 영혼의 조각 and use all 영혼의 조각 for 불안정한 고통 in a row with 영혼 수확 active. Preferably with 영혼 수확 and damage beneficial buffs. If you get more Shards while stacking your 불안정한 고통 up, you should use them as well. Using 불안정한 고통 on short living targets is recommend since you get your 영혼의 조각 within 8 seconds back.

Basically each 불안정한 고통 counts as an separate debuff but when their duration overlap they do cumulative damage. You do not lose any damage independent when you refresh it.

Conduit vs SL vs DE

With the 7.2.5 change up, we have a few options in the tier 100 tree. The overall play style will change drastically from spec to spec.

생명력 착취 Gives you an extra dot to maintain, with all the extra damage that comes with it. The damage on this has been improved by a lot.

영혼 전도체 Adds a lot of RNG to the dump rotation, but will be very strong in conjunction with our new legendary ring: 황천군주의 영혼. Even without, it will feel very similar to 7.2.5, but will definitely be lower damage.

죽음의 은총 Doesn’t actually change our rotation from 100-35%, but adds a multiplicative execute on the 35-0% of a fight. Keep in mind to save various CDs such as 영혼 거두기 for later for maximum deeps.

It is especially important that you never let fall 고통 off your target because you need to rebuild all the stacks.

It’s not a big of a deal if 부패 during a drain cycle because there is no damage ramp. 불안정한 고통 deals a lot more damage, so you lose more damage stopping to re-apply corruption than you do letting corruption stay off while continuing to drain with 불안정한 고통 ticking.

Offensive and Defensive Cooldowns

Offensive Cooldowns

파멸수호병 소환 can be used 2 ways, in the opener, or used later in the fight to push an especially difficult phase. The opener is usually the preferred place to use your Doomguard, but if you need to burn the boss down or an add it is recommended to save it for that point.

Due to the fact that you are almost always specced into 흑마법서: 우월함, this spell will see very little use.

영혼 거두기 is a cooldown that increases you and your pet’s damage by 20%. The baseline duration is 12 seconds and each target affected by 고통 will gain you 4 seconds more. The most important thing is to stack it with other damage increasers such as 잠식하는 분노 and 영혼 수확. It's also important to maximize the number of 고통 to gain the extra duration.

While stacking the cooldowns is good, be sure to understand the fight duration and requirements for optimal use. It’s bad to drop a full use of this over a 6-7 minute fight, but it's also bad to use it at one point, then not have it up for an important add that needs the extra damage on progression. Use with discretion.

뒤섞이는 공포 is not a talent it is a trait from your Artifact Weapon. Each time your 고통 or 부패 deals damage, you gain a stacking buff, stacking up to 5 times. Casting 불안정한 고통 will consume this buff, causing your next to deal bonus damage.

Summons a second demon which fight for you for 25 seconds and does 100% increased damage. The cooldown is 1.5 minute.

Due to the fact that you are almost always specced into 흑마법서: 우월함, this spell will see very little use.